Sponsors (5)
The bill increases Supreme Court engagement with regional courts and communities—potentially improving understanding, legitimacy, and on-the-ground-informed opinions—while imposing additional travel, administrative and budgetary burdens, risks of delays and recusals, and possible public-perception concerns about impartiality.
All Americans — Justices will spend more time hearing appellate oral arguments (≥10 days/year), improving their firsthand understanding of lower-court fact patterns and processes and likely producing better-informed Supreme Court decisionmaking.
State governments, local courts, and litigants — Greater exposure to varied state-law implementation and local legal issues should lead justices to write opinions more informed by on-the-ground practices.
Taxpayers and federal employees who travel with justices — Travel and related expenses for justices and their staff are explicitly reimbursed under federal travel rules, reducing personal cost barriers to participation.
All Americans — Requiring justices to travel and serve on circuits increases time away from Supreme Court duties and risks delaying certiorari, merits decisions, and other Court business, potentially slowing resolution of important national cases.
Parties and the judiciary — The disqualification/recusal rule, while promoting impartiality, could force additional recusals that reduce flexibility in Supreme Court review and increase workload and delay in resolving appeals.
Taxpayers and federal budget planners — Implementing circuit riding requires significant administrative planning (security, facilities, staffing) that could divert Court resources or require new appropriations.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires Supreme Court justices to perform at least 10 days per year of in-person circuit service on Courts of Appeals, with new rules on participation, rehearings, disqualification, and expense reimbursement.
Official title: To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide for the allotment of Supreme Court justices to circuits, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 11, 2026 by Joseph Morelle · Last progress June 11, 2026
Requires the Chief Justice and Associate Justices to be formally assigned as circuit justices and restores a modern form of "circuit riding": each justice must sit in at least one U.S. Court of Appeals panel and participate in at least 10 days of oral argument per year in one or more Circuits. The bill bars remote (video) participation for this duty, limits how such participation counts toward appellate rehearings, creates a new conflict-of-interest disqualification trigger, requires expense reimbursement consistent with federal travel rules, and directs the Chief Justice and Judicial Conference to issue implementing regulations within 180 days after public notice and comment.